Chapter 75: An Old Friend
Translator: TYZ Editor: Pranav
Mingxiu was lost.
Not long after she left the city, she had become lost in the woods of the countryside. Ever since she was young, she had led a simple and straightforward life in the embroidery workshop. Other than looking after the embroidery business, she basically did not engage in other activities. The teachers had doted on her as well, and even when she went out to collect debts, she would be accompanied by professional bodyguards.
She did not have any experience traveling solo in the countryside.
However, she was not really worried. The Induction Ground’s countryside had long been purged a few times. Those fearsome monsters that could threaten the students had been repeatedly annihilated by the older generations.
The Induction Ground was the safest place in the Avalon of Five Elements. This was a fact.
Other than the injuries that occurred during duels or competitions in various training halls, there were not many fatal incidents. The Induction Ground even encouraged competition among students, and the schools would not look into accidental injuries that occurred during duels and contests. Another source of injuries would be school missions. Although there were many dangerous missions, the Induction Ground encouraged students to engage frequently in such missions.
This had always been a custom of the Induction Ground. It was built upon smoke and ashes and had never withdrawn from danger before.
The threat of the Wilderness had still not been resolved. The Avalon of Five Elements needed valiant warriors, not sheltered babies, and the Induction Ground could never forget this principle.
A lot of customs in the Induction Ground followed this principle.
The Society of Excellence was also a product of this principle and the custom of bringing the frontline troops back to the Induction Ground as instructors had been established by the Induction Ground since early times.
Li Wei and Zhou Xiaoxi regarded their stints as instructors in the Society of Excellence as a holiday. However, when both of them heard the siren, their old habits kicked in, making them the first ones to respond to the situation.
Compared to them, the other teachers had a much slower response time.
When both of them saw the unconscious guard and learned that the suspect had escaped to the countryside, they started the chase. After reaching the city gate, they split up. Li Wei spread the azure wings on his back.
Azure wings had first appeared after the Avalon of Five Elements had been established. They were made of refined clouds, which were harvested in Palette Cloud Village and then refined by water elementalists using a special technique. Before the appearance of azure wings, the sky was the territory of dire beasts. Mankind could not easily defend themselves from the dire beasts that could fly, and it was not until the creation of azure wings that they could go head to head with those dire beasts in the sky.
Currently, the azure wings were the most widely-used single flying equipment. After thousands of years of development, the Palette Cloud Village was able to export a larger variety of the types of clouds, allowing it to live up to its name. As such, there was now a rich collection of types of azure wings available.
Initially, only water elementalists were able to use azure wings. However, after generations of hard work, water elementalists had developed various azure wings that were suitable for other types of elementalists.
With a wingspan of seven meters, Li Wei’s azure wings were copper-red and had a sturdy body speckled with a metal elemental glow. It was known as Copper Bone Bird and was suitable for metal elementalists. Copper Bone Bird did not have a high flying speed; however, it could bear a hefty load. Li Wei was from the infantry division, and his body had already developed copper skin and metallic bones; therefore, standard azure wings would not be able to carry his heavy weight.
Furthermore, Copper Bone Bird had a rather powerful defensive capability, making it difficult to get damaged.
He flapped his azure wings, stirring up a huge gust of wind, before soaring into the sky.
He hovered above, scanning through the woods with his eagle-like vision. If he were in the Wilderness, he would definitely not do such a thing—he specialized in land battles, not air battles.
But he did not have such worries in the Induction Ground.
After a while, he discovered a girl. He remembered that the guard had mentioned that some girl was pursuing the suspect.
He leaped from the air and landed nearby the girl. He introduced himself, “I’m Li Wei from the infantry division. I’m an instructor from the Society of Excellence in Central Pine City. Pleased to meet you!”
“I’m Lu Mingxiu from the Jade Embroidery Workshop.” Mingxiu returned the greeting politely.
“Lu Mingxiu from the Jade Embroidery Workshop,” Li Wei thought silently, as he carefully analyzed her face. She indeed looked familiar. He quickly asked, “Is your Elder Brother called Mr. Lu Chen?”
“Brother Li knows my brother?” Mingxiu was astonished.
Li Wei did not expect his guess to be right. He grinned. “Mr. Lu saved my life before! That time when I was injured, I stayed at his place for a month. He mentioned that Miss Mingxiu was training in embroidery. Then, now that I saw that Miss Mingxiu and Brother Lu looked very much alike, I took the liberty of asking Miss Mingxiu this question. I really didn’t expect it to be Miss Mingxiu! Is Miss Mingxiu chasing the suspect?”
“He has escaped. The woods are too large; after making a turn, I became lost, and I can’t find which direction he went,” Mingxiu replied, distressed.
“Miss Mingxiu can return to the city first. I shall take care of the rest,” Li Wei said.
“We will go together.” Mingxiu shook her head and continued, “And Brother Li can just call me Mingxiu. Miss Mingxiu sounds too formal.”
When Li Wei saw how resolute she was, he decided not to persuade her anymore. The Induction Ground was anyways supposed to be very safe. Furthermore, that guard had merely fainted, and no one was injured. This should be some kind of prank. During his school days, he had done many unruly things as well.
He felt that the school authority had somewhat overreacted. However, they could not be at fault, since Central Pine Academy’s reputation had finally risen after great difficulty. The school authority did not want the school’s reputation to now be affected in any way.
Besides, he was now here taking care of this incident.
Li Wei was very confident in his capability. With him around, it was impossible for anyone to harm Miss Mingxiu.
Instead, he had hesitated when Miss Mingxiu had asked him to call her by her name. Mr. Lu was someone whom he respected very much.
Mingxiu could sense Li Wei’s hesitation. She assured him with a gentle voice. “Since Brother Li is my elder brother’s friend, you’re naturally my friend too. Unless Brother Li does not wish to be Mingxiu’s friend?”
Li Wei was a no-nonsense man who was used to coquettishness. Upon hearing these words, he smiled. “I shall respect your decision, then.”
Mingxiu revealed a pleasant smile before quickly becoming distressed. “What should we do now?”
When Li Wei saw Mingxiu’s gentle and graceful smile, he was slightly struck dumb. He quickly returned to his senses and withdrew his gaze. With confidence, he replied, “Mingxiu, follow me.”
To Li Wei, pursuing a trail in the countryside was nothing out of the ordinary.
He quickly found traces and started to follow them.
Mingxiu was impressed by Li Wei’s efficiency and skill. “Brother Li is indeed skilled. You can identify the trail even in such a large woods.”
Li Wei replied shyly, “My skill level is considered average; there are people with higher skill level than me in my division.”
When Mingxiu saw the tough and fierce man behaving shyly, she laughed softly, as she found it extremely funny.
This time around, Li Wei’s face blushed. When he realized his own reaction, he suddenly wished that he could go hide somewhere. To conceal his awkwardness, he looked around with a feigned composure and gave a sudden exclamation of surprise.
“Has Brother Li discovered anything?” Mingxiu asked with her eyes wide open.
“That person has gone to the Suspending Golden Pagoda,” Li Wei explained.
He could immediately identify the correct direction as he was very familiar with the terrain around the Suspending Golden Pagoda.
“Let us go then!” Mingxiu said excitedly. Although she had a gentle nature, she was, after all, a girl. Having spent most of her time in the embroidery workshop, she had seldom encountered such a situation and felt that this was something new and exciting.
Li Wei was infected by Mingxiu’s liveliness and chuckled heartily. “Let’s go and find that lad who caused so much trouble!”